Rapid City is the second largest city in the US state of South Dakota and also the county seat of Pennington County. It was named after Rapid Creek, which flows through the town and originates on the eastern slope of the Black Hills. This mountain range divides the city into its western and eastern parts. According to iamaccepted, Rapid City is sometimes referred to as the “Star of the West” or the “Gateway to the Black Hills.” Currently, Rapid City is home to approximately 65,000 people.
You can get to the city via the Interstate. Rapid City is the largest city within a few hundred miles and is home to museums, shopping centers, motels, and regular cultural events. You should definitely not miss a visit to the Museum of Geology, where you can view fossils from around the Badlands and Black Hills on display. You will learn something about the past and the composition of the land, but also about the ancient settlers and why they wanted this piece of land so much. The Sioux Journey Museum is devoted mainly to the culture and art of this Indian tribe.
However, the Rapid City area has much more to offer than the city itself. The biggest tourist attraction is the famous Mount Rushmore monument. These are huge statues depicting the heads of four important American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The sculptures are carved directly into the huge granite rock massif.
Another very nice place for a trip are the stalactite caves of Crystal Cave Park, two-thirds of which are decorated with beautiful crystal formations that will delight every visitor. About 4 miles from the city lies the famous Black Hills Cavern, which is a complex of 28 caves that contain magnificent and large stalagmites and stalagtites. The slightly more distant Underground Falls are also worth a visit. As the name itself suggests, the cave hides an underground waterfall plunging to a depth of an amazing 182 meters. In the Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns, there are crystals the size of your fist, glimpsed in the reflection of a clear underground lake.
To the south of Rapid City lies Bear Country USA, which is home to all the wild animals that cannot normally be seen in the wild. If you’re lucky, you’ll see grizzly bears or black bears. Rapid City also holds a world record for being the city with the fastest sudden drop in temperature in the past. On January 10, 1911, the temperature here dropped really fast – in just 15 minutes by an incredible 26 degrees Celsius. The city has an airport with connections to New York and London. Bus services run to Minneapolis, Cheyenne and Omaha.
